We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

"Is this self-portrait of you?"

"it's me."

I said he's not you.

"This is me."

Just like the last art assignment, it was met with skepticism, but this time it was Chen Qiuhe who was questioning it.

"I'd also like to see Li Mubai's paintings," said Zhang Chun, who was sitting at the table behind her.

After obtaining Li Mubai's consent, Chen Qiuhe gave the painting to Zhang Chun.

"puff--"

Laugh if you want, anyway, I'm right in front of you, I won't see your smiling face unless I turn around.

"This painting... doesn't really look like Li Mubai. It's not that ugly. Chen Qiuhe's painting last time was the real deal," Zhang Chun commented.

What do you mean? I am Li Mu Bai! How could Chen Qiuhe understand herself better than I do?

"I've done my best; this is the best I can do." Li Mubai handed the drawing to Chen Qiuhe, asking her to submit it. This time, he didn't search for tutorials online and draw it stroke by stroke; instead, he just sketched a few lines based on his intuition.

He felt that neither Chen Qiuhe's nor Li Mubai's own paintings were truly his own.

"Look at mine," Zhang Chun said, showing off her self-portrait.

"Hmm, it's pretty good."

……

"Oh."

"Why did you suddenly laugh?" Deng Yi asked.

"It's nothing."

Xie Shu and Deng Yi placed their art assignments on the teacher's desk, with Li Mubai's painting prominently displayed on top.

He had an information technology class in the afternoon, and he remembered that he had made an appointment with Chen Qiuhe last week to continue playing the 4399 two-player game.

"Li Mubai, stop listening to the lesson and come play this game, 'Fat Cat Angel,' with me."

"I'm not playing, I want to listen to the lesson."

"Actually, people actually listen to information technology?"

"Go find Zhang Chun to hang out with."

"All right."

Looking at the two girls playing around beside him, Li Mubai shook his head inwardly.

A person who does not plan for the future will have trouble in the present. Information technology courses mainly teach office software such as Word and Excel, which are essential skills for laborers. Laborers need to start learning these skills from high school so they can win at the starting line.

He also has to write a speech, which is a big deal. Writing it out is not difficult for him, but reading it out is. If he gets nervous and stutters in front of the whole school, he might earn the nickname "Stuttering Brother".

Being a class monitor brings a lot of trouble, even for the deputy.

"Mu Bai, Li Mu Bai, you're under arrest!" Chen Qiuhe said during the evening self-study break.

"What the hell?"

"Zootopia, haven't you seen it?"

"without."

To be honest, he never specifically searched for any particular movie to watch. He just watched whatever CCTV6 was showing when he was a kid, and he never went to the cinema.

"That shouldn't be the case. You should have seen videos of Bald Qiang and Xiong Da, right? Oh, I forgot, you don't use Douyin."

"There's a growing generation gap between me and you young people."

"What are you talking about! I'd think you were so old that you'd have to call me 'sister'."

"Is Li Mubai younger than Qiu He?" Zhang Chun asked doubtfully.

"A few months younger." This is an objective fact, and Li Mubai won't mind; they're both high school sophomores now.

"A few months younger is still younger!" Only Chen Qiuhe would care about such things.

"Li Mubai, when is your birthday?" Zhang Chun continued to ask.

Li Mubai felt a sense of crisis. "We're just sitting at adjacent desks, don't cross the line!"

"June."

"How much is it in June?"

"Ring ring!" The bell for evening self-study rang just then.

"I'm in evening self-study now, let's talk about it later." Li Mubai used delaying tactics, not wanting others to know his birthday.

He turned around, ready to continue doing his homework.

"Hey, so what month is your birthday in June?" Chen Qiuhe wrote in her notebook.

"Are you going to give me a birthday present?"

"Look how narcissistic you are, I was just asking."

"I won't say anything if you don't give me a birthday present."

"I have never seen such a shameless person."

This line, "Li Mubai knows," comes from the old version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

"Hey, how was Saturday? Did you unlock any special CGs with XS?" Yang Kun asked cheekily.

"We're already in the dorm, why are you still talking about XS? Xie Shu is fine," Zhao Feng said.

"Be careful, walls have ears. If you don't learn from your brother now, you'll regret it after you leave school."

Having said that, Yang Kun ignored Zhao Feng and continued, "So, what's the situation with Lao Bai?"

"It's nothing, I went home after watching Teacher Wu." Li Mubai lied. If people knew that he and Xie Shu went to the mall, who knows what kind of trouble it would cause.

"All right."

"Oh, and I also ran into Teacher Wu's daughter."

"A daughter? Is she pretty?"

"Second year of junior high."

"I can accept someone three or four years younger."

……

Ignoring Yang Kun, who was being controlled by Xiao Tou, Li Mubai planned to read for a while and then go to sleep.

He first opened QQ to see how the feedback from yesterday's confession wall went.

"Chunyu, here comes another one. Our school really produces a lot of talented people."

"Spring Island and Autumn Guest, their names match quite well."

"It's possible that Qiu Ke uses two pen names [doge]."

"I think it might be friends or boyfriend/girlfriend or something."

Not every piece on the confession wall is like He Yanshu's. After all, the threshold is low, and most of them are mediocre works, especially ancient poems, where people generally don't understand the rules of prosody.

Ultimately, meter is a basic issue that is easy to understand, but students either don't have the time, don't know how to learn it, or always feel that meter will restrict them.

Yan Shu: "What are you doing?"

Li Bubai: "I'm going to read for a while and then go to sleep."

Yan Shu: "What book?"

Li Bubai: "A collection of essays."

Yan Shu: "What's your name?"

We're just online friends!

Li Bubai: "Loneliness is a Gift of Life".

It just so happens that they are online friends who don't know me, so it won't be a problem if I tell anyone.

Yan Shu: "This one? [jpg]"

Yan Shu sent me a screenshot from JD.com.

Li Bubai: "Yes."

Yan Shu: "I'm reading a book too."

Li Bubai: "Oh."

Li Mubai wasn't interested in asking what book Yan Shu was reading. Sure enough, there was a reason he couldn't find friends—he couldn't provide emotional support.

Don't assume that only romantic partners need emotional value. In fact, friends also need emotional value. For example, if you tell a joke to your friend, you definitely hope that your friend can catch the joke. That's emotional value.

Yan Shu: "Have you forgotten something?"

Li Bubai: "I forgot? Actually, I was waiting for you to ask me to, to see if you had forgotten."

Li Mubai stubbornly insisted that he hadn't yet changed his mindset from working alone.

Yan Shu: "Really?"

This is a rhetorical question; the words themselves seem to convey the presence of a girl smiling and asking him.

Li Bubai: "For the next half month, we will compose poems about a certain fruit and vegetable."

Yan Shu: "Okay, then I won't disturb you while you're reading. Get some rest, goodnight."

He thought for a moment and instead of sending goodbye, he sent a moon emoji.

Today we begin a new chapter. Turn to page 129:

"For a long time, my life seemed to be about to begin, to start a real life, but there were always obstacles in the way. There were things that needed to be resolved first, some work that needed to be done, time that seemed to be enough, and a debt that needed to be paid off, and then life would begin. Finally, I realized that these obstacles were my life."